An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1 eBook

Thus, under the blessing of God, was happily completed,
in eight months and one week, a voyage which, before
it was undertaken, the mind hardly dared venture to
contemplate, and on which it was impossible to reflect
without some apprehensions as to its termination.
This fortunate completion of it, however, afforded
even to ourselves as much matter of surprise as of
general satisfaction; for in the above space of time
we had sailed five thousand and twenty-one leagues;
had touched at the American and African Continents;
and had at last rested within a few days sail of the
antipodes of our native country, without meeting any
accident in a fleet of eleven sail, nine of which
were merchantmen that had never before sailed in that
distant and imperfectly explored ocean: and when
it is considered, that there was on board a large
body of convicts, many of whom were embarked in a
very sickly state, we might be deemed peculiarly fortunate,
that of the whole number of all descriptions of persons
coming to form the new settlement, only thirty-two
had died since their leaving England, among whom were
to be included one or two deaths by accidents; although
previous to our departure it was generally conjectured,
that before we should have been a month at sea one
of the transports would have been converted into an
hospital ship. But it fortunately happened otherwise;
the high health which was apparent in every countenance
was to be attributed not only to the refreshments
we met with at Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good
Hope, but to the excellent quality of the provisions
with which we were supplied by Mr. Richards junior,
the contractor; and the spirits visible in every eye
were to be ascribed to the general joy and satisfaction
which immediately took place on finding ourselves
arrived at that port which had been so much and so
long the subject of our most serious reflections,
the constant theme of our conversations.

The governor, we found, had employed the time he had
been here in examining the bay, for the purpose of
determining where he should establish the settlement;
but as yet he had not seen any spot to which some
strong objection did not apply. Indeed, very few
places offered themselves to his choice, and not one
sufficiently extensive for a thousand people to sit
down on. The southern shore about Point Sutherland
seemed to possess the soil best adapted for cultivation,
but it was deficient in that grand essential fresh
water, and was besides too confined for our numbers.
There was indeed a small run of water there; but it
appeared to be only a drain from a marsh, and by no
means promised that ample or certain supply which
was requisite for such a settlement as ours.
The governor, therefore, speedily determined on examining
the adjacent harbours of Port Jackson and Broken Bay,
in one of which he thought it possible that a better
situation for his young colony might be found.
But as his search might possibly prove fruitless, and
that the few days which it should occupy might not